Protection des cultures à l'aide de la haie morte et de la haie vive dans la région de Ségou, au Mali

Crop Protection with the Help of Dead and Live Fences in the Segou Region, in Mali. In the Segou region, in Mali, market crop production during the dry season is increasing. This type of production needs to be protected from livestock, which roams freely during the dry season. Three types of fences are used by farmers in order to protect their plots: dead fence, which is made of crop residues or branches from thorny trees and shrubs; traditional live fence, most often consisting of euphorbia planted close to one another; and improved live fence, composed of multipurpose trees and shrubs, usually thorny. A study was conducted in eleven villages in order to analyse the contribution of these different types of fences to the protection of crops, as well as some constraints related to their use. Results show that three quarters of the agricultural production units (APU) use one of the crop protection techniques during the dry season. Three out of ten APU even use one type of fences or the other during the rainy season. Although the protection it offers is limited, the dead fence seems well adapted to the farmer's agrarian system. The improved live fence, for its part, faces many constraints, especially with regard to labour organization of the members of the APU.